


Failure to Communicate

by quackers



Series: Communication [1]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Misunderstandings, Or not, Vampire Shane Madej
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-06 03:37:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16380647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quackers/pseuds/quackers
Summary: Shane thinks Ryan knows about his feelings.Ryan thinks Shane is a vampire.





	Failure to Communicate

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween!

Ryan acting a little preoccupied was nothing new. Neither was the intense staring into the middle distance or occasional muttering to himself. 

This? This was new. 

“Alright, you have me at your mercy,” Shane drawled, leaning against the short counter in the break room that nobody used because of how far away it was. He crossed his arms over his chest, lazily making a ‘get on with it' gesture with one hand.

“Okay,” Ryan said, his gaze darting all around the room but never once landing on Shane. “Okay,” he tried again, shifting his weight back like he was a second away from booking it. He had been acting that way for well over a week, as if he was afraid to be in the same room with Shane. 

It was getting to be a little annoying. 

Shane waited for a beat to see if there would be any more words forthcoming, but when Ryan just continued to chew on his lip and avoid looking at him, he sighed. “C’mon, man, I have stuff I need to do. Those expense reports don’t fill themselves out.” 

Ryan’s shifty expression morphed into exasperation for a moment. “They’d be easier to fill out if you’d stop eating at every shitty food truck you come across.”

“Hey, you like those shitty food trucks.”

Ryan shrugged, since he couldn’t exactly argue with that. Then he took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “Shane,” he started, his expression solemn. “I- Well, I uh…”

Oh shit, this was actually important. Without realizing it, Shane straightened up from the counter. 

“I know.”

Shane blinked. Tilted his head. “You… know?”

With a nod that would have been comical if he hadn’t looked so damn earnest, Ryan took a step forward. “I know. And it’s fine, it’s okay, I swear.”

More confused than ever, Shane’s eyebrows furrowed together. It wasn’t like he had any major secrets from Ryan, other than one or two, and he didn’t think they were something Ryan would care about. “I don’t-” 

‘Know’ was the word that he choked on, sudden understanding dawning on him like some kind of unwelcome epiphany. 

Oh no, Ryan _knew_. 

Panic set in so fast that Shane almost ran out of the room. But he wasn’t a teenager anymore and he could handle having his unrequited crush discovered like this. Because that’s all it was. A _crush_. “Fuck, Ry-” he hastily corrected himself, since his straighter-than-a-ruler best friend probably wouldn’t appreciate being called a pet name right now. “Ryan, I’m sorry, I didn’t think I was being obvious, if I did something to make you uncomfortable or-”

Shane paused and forced himself to take a deep breath to stop the word vomit. For Christ’s sake, he was over thirty, he could handle this. “I hope that this won’t affect anything,” he said in a steady voice. 

Surely Ryan wouldn’t let this ruin everything, right? Be it their working relationship or their brand new channel? Or maybe that’s why Ryan was doing this in as private a room as he could while still at work. To air out grievances? To keep it professional? 

His worries were cut short by the way Ryan took another step forward, both hands up in a calming gesture. “Whoa there, I just said it’s fine. I just wanted you to know that I know, so that you don’t have to pretend so hard or whatever, dude. “

“You’re...fine with it? Really?” Shane couldn’t quite believe his luck. Sure, he didn’t think Ryan would suddenly start avoiding him like the plague, but it had taken years before the man had been comfortable even being in the same personal space as another guy, let alone knowing one had a crush on him. Shane would have expected a lot more awkward stammering, for one thing. 

Ryan rubbed at the back of his neck, looking a little sheepish. “Okay, I admit it took me a couple of days to get used to the idea.”

Yeah, that didn’t surprise Shane in the slightest. 

“But I did some soul-searching,” Ryan made a face at the phrase but continued doggedly, “And I realized that I don’t care. It’s not like you’re going around staring creepily at me like Edward Cullen.”

Shane snorted, allowing himself to relax. “I hate to break it to you, but you’re not vapid enough to be Bella.”

Ryan widened his eyes in mock offense. “Fuck you, I’d make a great Bella.” He awkwardly reached out and lightly thumped Shane on the shoulder with his fist. “Seriously, we’re cool.”

It was probably the most ‘bro’ thing he had done to Shane in months, but considering the topic of their conversation, Shane would take it. 

\-------------

 

Shane had, somewhat naively, thought that would be the end of that. 

His crush had embarrassingly been discovered, there would be some pointed jokes, and then they’d both move on with their lives. 

Except that Ryan began to act weird. Which wasn’t unusual in the grand scheme of things, since the guy kept way too many gym shoes to be considered entirely sane. But he began to act weird for _Ryan_ , which was a feat in and of itself. 

Shane had just sat down with his lunch when he realized that Ryan was staring at him. And his food. He stared back as he pointedly picked up his sandwich and took a bite. 

“How do you eat so much?”

After swallowing, Shane gestured with his sandwich in a vague ‘himself’ direction. “There’s a lot of me to keep fed. Having a hollow leg is a lot worse when there’s so much of it.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “No, I mean, how do you, you know, digest food?”

“The usual way, I imagine.”

That got him a disgusted headshake and the topic was dropped. 

Shane would have been willing to dismiss that as a weird one-off situation, except that Ryan started asking even more odd questions. 

“Do you ever feel like you have to count things?”

“What, like the Count on Sesame Street?”

Ryan groaned and never asked that specific question again. 

Once, while they were walking down the street in the middle of the day, Ryan turned to stare at him with an appraising eye that made him feel like he was being mentally undressed. It was far less sexy than he would have thought. He fought the urge to cross his arms and frowned. “What?”

“You’re pale, but you’re not corpse-pale, either.”

Shane raised both eyebrows. “Are you questioning my status as a skin cancer prone white guy? Because I can assure you, the hat is not a fashion accessory.” He grinned. “Well, it's not _only_ a fashion accessory.”

Ryan sighed in exasperation at the mention of Shane’s favorite wide-brimmed hat, but continued with his odd train of thought. “I know you get sunburns, I’ve seen how red you get, but you don’t really... burn.”

Shane shrugged. “Sunscreen is not to be underestimated. Why are you even looking at my skin that much, anyways?”

Ryan quickly looked away and dropped the subject. 

Two days later, Ryan showed up at Shane’s apartment for a day of movies, took one look at him, and yelled, “You wear glasses!” as if Shane had personally betrayed him in some way.

Since it was still before noon, Shane just turned around and walked away. He left the door open, leaving it up to Ryan on whether or not Shane’s need for glasses would stop him from coming in. 

The next day at work, Ryan demanded they arm wrestle. Shane got out of that by pointing out that they would essentially be holding hands. In their workplace. Where all and sundry could record the event. Ryan made a horrified face and disappeared. 

Right after recording in the sound booth one day, Ryan awkwardly asked if he believed in the power of the crucifix. Since Shane had no interest in demons, or worse, discussing religion at work, he had merely ignored Ryan. Much to Ryan’s obvious frustration. 

None of the questions really seemed to be related to Ryan finding out about Shane's feelings for him, but they hadn’t started until after that conversation, so he could only assume that they were Ryan’s way of coping. And it probably made sense in the weird, squirrely way of thinking that Ryan had. 

It was more amusing than anything else, so Shane just went with the flow. It was a new norm, and frankly, he’d accept a lot more than some odd, invasive questions if it meant he got to keep Ryan in his life. 

God, he was such a sap. 

\-----------------

 

Truthfully, it was surprising it hadn’t already happened. 

They had gone to enough decrepit buildings that were one strong wind away from turning into a pile of kindling that Shane should have expected one of them would get hurt. 

He had always assumed it would be him, frankly. He wasn’t as built as Ryan, but if anyone was going to be heavy enough to go through rotten floorboards, it would probably be the guy that was a head taller than most of their team. 

So watching both Mark and Ryan fall through a porch was more terrifying than anything that had ever happened on a location shoot. He had a moment to be disgusted with himself for his panicked, initial concern over the camera equipment, before he was rushing forward to help. 

Luckily for everyone involved, it hadn’t been a very tall porch. Mark’s foot had gone through a board, making him trip forward into Ryan and causing them both to go down. An entire section of wood had cracked and fallen away at the sudden heavy weight of two grown men and too many cameras falling into it, but the drop had only been a handful of inches. 

The biggest problem was the foot long splinter impaled into Mark’s arm. 

There was blood dripping steadily down Mark’s skin, pooling in his palm before splattering onto the ground. Shane was having a hard time looking away. 

_Fuck_ , none of them were supposed to get hurt doing this. 

And, less importantly but still a concern, they were going to have to try and extend their stay for another night, because there was no way they weren’t taking Mark to a hospital. Even if the man was trying stoically to assure them that he just needed a bandage and he’d be fine to keep filming. 

Shane realized he was spacing out, but it was hard not to. There was a goddamn _stake_ in Mark’s arm. 

Suddenly his vision was filled with eyes that were black in the gloom of twilight.

“Hey,” Ryan said, quiet but intense. “Look at me. Come on, let’s give them some space. Teej and Devon can handle it.”

And then Ryan grabbed his hand and tugged him a few yards away, until they were out of easy hearing distance. Shane was so shocked that Ryan would willingly touch him like that that he went along in a daze. 

Ryan’s palm was warm and sweaty. Weirdly so for how cool the air around them was. 

Shane was so distracted by the mix of interest over the weight of Ryan’s hand and disgust over how clammy it was that he jumped when Ryan put his free hand on Shane’s chest. 

“Eyes on me, big guy.”

Shane blinked down at Ryan, confused. Did Ryan think he was having a reaction to the sight of blood? 

Okay, he _had_ been spacing out, but it wasn’t like he had been about to do anything embarrassing. 

Then he got a good look at Ryan’s face and was even more confused. 

That was Ryan’s ‘I just got goosed by a ghost’ expression. He was _afraid_. But of what? Had crashing through the porch been that scary? Or was he worried about Mark?

“Hey,” Shane was the one to say this time, squeezing Ryan’s hand. “It’s fine. I’m sure it won’t be hard to negotiate another night with the owners and BuzzFeed has insurance for this kind of thing. Mark probably won’t even have to get a tetanus shot.”

Ryan’s voice lowered to a whisper. “You can tell that?”

Shane had absolutely no idea what Mark would or wouldn’t need, but Ryan looked like he needed the reassurance. “Yeah, don’t worry. Why are we whispering?”

“I don’t want them looking over here. Your eyes are kind of glowing and it’s really freaky.”

About to dignify that with the scathing response about eye reflections and camera lights that it deserved, Shane was distracted by the way Ryan was hunched to his side. Ignoring Ryan’s protests, he angled his body so that light would reach Ryan’s torso. 

There was a rip in his shirt right above his hip. The material gleamed wet and dark under a long, angry scratch.

“Holy shit, you’re bleeding,” Shane hissed. 

Ryan’s eyes went wide and he jerked away, ripping his hand away from Shane’s. 

Confused and hurt by the reaction, Shane just stared at him, mouth half open on a word that he had forgotten. 

“Shit, I didn’t- that was instinct, I’m not afraid, I just-” Ryan growled in frustration and strode right up into Shane’s space. He almost angrily took Shane’s hand again. “I’ll ask Devon to slap a bandaid or something on it, don’t think about it.”

“You need to get that cleaned, you-”

“Don’t think about it,” Ryan snapped, his fingers squeezing so hard around Shane’s that it began to hurt. 

Shane shut his mouth. Now wasn’t the time to rile Ryan up. And didn’t he say anything about the way Ryan kept his bloody side turned away from him for the rest of the night. 

\------------------

Shane spent a whole week remembering, questioning, and analyzing that incident. Ryan had acted incredibly oddly for the rest of the night. Even in the hospital, he had watched Shane like he had expected he was about to go on a murderous rampage through the halls. 

And he hadn’t let go of Shane’s hand except when he had to. 

The rest of their team had definitely noticed it. Well, maybe Mark hadn’t, since he had been rather occupied. But TJ and Devon had both sent him a look over Ryan’s head at different times. All he had been able to do was shrug helplessly. 

As soon as they had made it back to LA, Ryan had gone out of his way to steer clear of Shane. Once, he had actually walked into a room, then immediately spun on his heel and left, just because Shane had been there.

He had the uncomfortable suspicion that holding hands with a dude outside of a bit for the camera had been a step too far for Ryan, even if he had been the one to start it. Possibly _because_ he had been the one to start it. 

Fuck, odd questions were one thing, but Shane really didn’t want his best friend avoiding him. 

And maybe Shane was a little bit angry that Ryan was reacting this way. It’s not like he had been doing anything differently. Ryan had done it all himself!

Ryan had done such a good job of staying away from him that he was honestly surprised when the man invited himself over one night after work. 

As soon as the door was locked, Ryan crowded into Shane, his shoulders back and chin up as if he was about to start a fight. 

Since this wasn’t highschool and they weren’t about to throw down in the school parking lot, Shane just stared down at him, unimpressed. He longed to back away, since he hated confrontation, but he knew that Ryan would follow him. 

“I want you to-” Ryan started off strong, but his words had apparently failed him halfway through the sentence. He gestured unhelpfully. “You know.”

“No,” Shane said in a clipped voice. “I don’t.”

Ryan went red and his gaze dropped. It was obvious he was ashamed about something, but Shane wasn’t feeling particularly charitable at the moment. He wasn’t going to offer help. Ryan could figure his own way out of this emotional mess that he had created.

“I know I’ve been acting like a dick,” Ryan said to Shane’s chest. “I’m just really confused, okay?”

“Doesn’t mean you need to act like I have the Black Death.”

Ryan winced. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

Shane sighed. It was frustrating that he couldn’t stay mad at Ryan for any length of time. In an absurdly high-pitched voice, he asked, “Do you even know what you’re apologizing for?”

That got an eye roll, but it also got a smile, so Shane figured it was a win. 

Ryan took a deep breath, then settled his hands on Shane’s waist. His eyes flicked to Shane's mouth, then away again. “Can you? Please?”

“Words, Bergara,” Shane said, but he didn’t really mean it. Not when his heart was starting to pound harder and his stomach was twisting in a way that was as nauseating as it was exciting. And cautious hope was making itself known, a pervasive, not entirely welcome ache.

This could only end terribly.

“Shane,” Ryan whined, exasperated. 

Fuck it, he would take what he could get. 

So Shane took pity on him. He had always assumed Ryan would be the type to make the first move, but he didn’t really know how Ryan reacted in situations like this, did he? Maybe this _was_ Ryan making the first move. 

Moving carefully, slowly, Shane brought one hand up to Ryan’s jaw, letting himself trace the man’s cheekbone with his thumb. And then, just as slowly, giving Ryan plenty of time to back away, he leaned down and kissed him. 

Ryan’s lips parted under his in a soundless gasp of surprise, but Shane didn’t take advantage of it. Not right away. It was enough to simply feel the softness of Ryan’s mouth and the scrape of stubble, to hear the hitched, unsteady breaths. 

He drew back, stomach a tight knot as he waited for Ryan’s reaction. 

“Oh,” Ryan said, nearly a whisper. “That’s not quite what I meant, but that’s fine.”

Ryan went onto his toes for another kiss, but before he made contact Shane stepped back and asked, “What did you mean?”

The way Ryan ducked his head was both endearing and hilarious. “I wanted you to bite me.”

Wait. 

What?

Shane stared. “Bit kinky when we haven’t even kissed yet.” A little thrill went through him at a sudden realization. “Hadn’t. Hadn’t kissed yet.”

“Yeah, but I keep thinking about it and you know how obsessed I can get. And I want to see your teeth.”

“...Unless I miss my guess, you’ve seen my teeth before.”

Ryan furrowed his brows and started to say something. Then his face went completely slack in surprise. He let go of Shane to bring one hand up to his lips. “Wait,” he muttered, half to himself. “Wait, oh my God.”

“Uh, Ryan,” Shane said nervously. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t start freaking out over a kiss. Just saying.”

Ryan flapped his hand. “No, no, the kissing is fine, the kissing is great, I just- I think I made a mistake.”

At Shane’s expression, he held up both hands and practically shouted, “No! Not about the kiss! About you!” He groaned at his word choice. “Not about you, but about _you_. Fuck, this made more sense in my head.”

Shane was confused. To say the least. 

“A lot of crazy stuff makes sense your head,” he said automatically. “Ryan? What’s going on in that noggin?”

“I uh, I think maybe I should go.”

It would have been easy to think that Ryan was second guessing the whole ‘kiss’ situation, but Shane didn’t think he would look so deeply embarrassed if that had been the problem. Ryan looked like he wanted to sink into the floor and hide. Maybe start over in a new state with a new name. Considering some of the stuff that came out of his mouth, it had to be something big if he was this appalled over it.

Shane did his best to keep his expression gentle, getting the feeling that teasing wouldn’t be entirely welcomed. “Talk to me. Communication is key in any relationship,” he said. He had meant it as a joke, but his voice turned a little wondering on the last word. 

“Tell me about it,” Ryan muttered into his hands. “Promise you won’t laugh?”

There was a moment of silence.

Ryan dropped his hands from his face and scowled. “Fine, promise you won’t tell anyone about this.”

Shane held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

With a deep breath that sounded like it hurt, Ryan blurted, “I thought you were a vampire.”

“You-” Shane closed his mouth to stop himself from saying something unfortunate. He pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers, certain he could feel a headache forming. “I need a minute.”

Fucking _Ryan_.

He loved this imbecile. Goddammit. 

The silence coming off Ryan was so uncomfortable that it almost made Shane feel guilty. But Ryan deserved to squirm in the embarrassment he had created. 

“So when you said you _knew_ ,” Shane eventually said, crossing his arms, “I thought you already- You didn’t mean that you knew I was in love with you.”

“You’re in love with-”

Shane stopped Ryan’s incredulous shout with a raised hand. “Uh uh, no. You don’t get to act surprised right now.”

“But-”

“Ah.”

“Shane-”

“Nope.”

“I love you too, you idiot!”

Shane rocked back on his heels, surprise making him stutter. “Wait, you do? Even though-"

Ryan looked down. “Uh, yeah. Yes. I did. I do.”

Huh.

That changed some things.

There was a very good possibility that Ryan was just high on the adrenaline of being kissed by a guy and the embarrassment of his confession, but Shane decided to do the stupid thing. He chose to believe Ryan. 

And what better opportunity would he ever get? In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.

Shane took a step closer. Then another. For once, he let himself enjoy looming over someone. Ryan stared up at him with big, beautiful, brown eyes, obviously nervous. “If you wanted to see fangs, you should have asked my brother.”

Those beautiful eyes went wide. “Wh-what?”

Shane grinned, sharp and hungry. “He inherited the teeth. I have to use a knife.”

The look on Ryan’s face was _priceless_.

 _Worth it_.

**Author's Note:**

> Something quick and fun for the season. I hope y'all like it!
> 
> Come yell at me at [Mephsation](http://mephsation.tumblr.com), if you want!


End file.
